Chapter XXXIII: Act V: Scene I (2)

_to steal mutton_] “i. e. to steal a wench. _Mutton_,
in the language of the times, signified a _fille de
joie_.” REED.

# 211:

_He took bread and salt_] i. e. he swore: bread and
salt, according to ancient custom, were eaten by those
who took oaths.

# 212:

_slights_] i. e. artifices.

# 213:

_prevent_] i. e. anticipate.

# 214:

_disguise_] So several eds. First ed. “disguisde.”

# 215:

_frighted_] So several eds. First ed. “fraighted.”

# 216:

_pray_] So several eds. First ed. “I _pray_”—but qy.
ought we to read,

MAT. No words, Fluello, for’t stands us upon.
FLU. O sir, I pray, let that be your lesson!

# 217:

_Enter a Sweeper_] Old eds. have, “_Enter_ Towne like
_a sweeper_,” and prefix “Towne” to his speeches,—and
so in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_! Towne was the name of the
actor who played this part: there were two performers
so called,—John and Thomas Towne: see Collier’s _Hist.
of Engl. Dram. Poet._, vol. i. pp. 318, 351.

# 218:

_there’s no ho with them_] “i. e. there are no bounds
or restraints with them.” REED.—They are not to be
restrained by a call, or _ho!_ The expression is
common.

# 219:

_blocks_] i. e. hats—a not unfrequent sense of the
word: properly, the moulds on which the crowns of hats
were formed.

# 220:

_countryman_] So several eds. First ed. “countrymen.”

# 221:

_Opens a door_, &c.] Old eds. have, “_Discouers an old
man wrapt in a net_,” but prefix “_First Madman_” to
his speeches. That he comes out, and is not merely
shewn in his cell, is evident from what Anselmo
afterwards says to the servant,—“Take him in there.”

# 222:

_ears_] So ed. 1635. Other eds. “ear.”

# 223:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 224:

_a polt foot_] “Seems to be the same we now call _a
splay foot_.” REED. Rather, a club-foot.

# 225:

_pear-coloured_] i. e. red.

# 226:

_promoter_] i. e. informer.

# 227:

_go_] Old eds. “goes.”

# 228:

_pantofles_] A sort of slippers.

# 229:

_come aloft, Jack_] The exclamation of a master to an
ape that had been taught to tumble and play tricks.

# 230:

_virginals; and still his jacks_, &c.] The virginals
was an instrument of the spinnet kind: for a correct
description of it, see Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.—In a
note on the Second Part of this drama Steevens cites
from Bacon, “In a _virginal_ as soon as ever the
_jack_ falleth and toucheth the string, the sound
ceaseth.”

# 231:

_flap-dragon_] See note, vol. i. p. 66.

# 232:

_an almond for parrot_] “The title of a pamphlet [by
Nash], called, '_An Almond for a Parrot, or Cuthbert
Curry-knaves Almes_.' B. L., no date, is here alluded
to.” REED.—There is no such allusion. The expression,
“an almond for parrot,” is old (it occurs in Skelton),
and by no means uncommon. See my note on Webster’s
_Works_, vol. iii. p. 122.

# 233:

_a rope for parrot_] Another proverbial expression.
Taylor, the water-poet, has an epigram beginning,

“Why doth the Parrat cry a Rope, a Rope?
Because hee’s cag’d in prison out of hope.”
_Epigrams_, p. 265—_Workes_, 1630.

# 234:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 235:

_in but_] So several eds. First ed. “but in.”

# 236:

_God’s-santy_] “See a note on _The Merchant of
Venice_, vol. iii. p. 157, edit. 1778, [where Steevens
says, ‘Perhaps it was once customary to swear by the
_santé_, i. e. _health_, of the Supreme Being,’ &c.]
Perhaps, however, _God’s-santy_ is only a corruption
of _God’s sanctity_, or _God’s saints_.“ STEEVENS.

# 237:

_barley-break_] Or the _last couple in hell_,—was a
game played by six people, three of each sex, who were
coupled by lot: see Gifford’s description of it,—note
on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 104, ed. 1813.

# 238:

_little friar_] i. e., of course, Infelice:—in
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, “_little_ finger!”

# 239:

_friar Tuck_] The famous chaplain of Robin Hood.

# 240:

_table_] A quibble. _Table_ meant the palm of the
hand.

# 241:

_I have a hand_, &c.] Given in old eds. as a
continuation of Hippolito’s speech.

# 242:

_content_] First two eds. “consent” in both lines.
Other eds. “consent” in first line and “content” in
second.

# 243:

_mutton_] See note, p. 102.

# 244:

_O brave Arthur of Bradley_] “An allusion to the old
ballad of that name, which is printed in 'An antidote
against melancholy, made up in pills, 1661.'”—REED.

# 245:

_cony-catch’d_] See note, p. 16.

# 246:

_’found_] i. e. confound.

# 247:

_golls_] See note, p. 23.

# 248:

_was my_] So several eds. First ed. “_was_ yet _my_.”

# 249:

_skill_] i. e. reason.

# 250:

_See, my lord_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note,
p. 52.

# 251:

_wasters_] i. e. cudgels.

# 252:

_I am no larke ... doe not dare me_] To _dare larks_ meant to catch larks
by _terrifying_ them with a hawk, a mirror, &c.

# 253:

_Friscobaldo_] Ought, properly, to be written
_Frescobaldo_; but I have not altered the orthography
of the old ed., because Matheo says to him, “I’ll
_frisco_ you,” act iv. sc. 1; and when Lodovico
(forgetting to address him by his assumed name of
Pacheco) calls him “Friscobaldo,” he replies,
“_Frisking_ again?” act iv. sc. 2.

# 254:

_ningle_] See note, vol. ii. p. 498.

# 255:

_running heads_] Opposite these words is a
stage-direction in old ed. “_Exchange Walke_”—meaning,
I presume, that they were to walk up and down while
they talked.

# 256:

_Ast., Ber., &c._] Old ed. here and afterwards,
“_Omnes_.“

# 257:

_costermongers_] “Sellers of apples.” REED.

# 258:

_saint Patrick, &c._] Saint Patrick’s Purgatory was
a cavern in the southern part of the county of
Donegall, much frequented by pilgrims: see a long
note concerning it, by Reed, on Heywood’s _Four
P’s_,—Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. i. p. 59, last
ed.; also the prefatory matter to _Owain Miles_, in
a very interesting volume, containing that and other
pieces of early poetry, edited by Mr. W. B. D. D.
Turnbull and Mr. D. Laing, Edinb. 1837.

# 259:

_footmen to noblemen and others_] When this play was
written many English “noblemen and others” had Irish
running footmen in their service. So in _Cupid’s
Whirligig_, ed. 1616, “Come, thou hast such a running
wit, ’tis like _an Yrish foote boy_,” sig. E 3; in
Brathwait’s _Strappado for the Diuell_, 1615,

“For see those thin breech _Irish lackies_ runne,” p.
191;

and in Dekker’s _English Villanies six several times
prest to death by the printers_, &c., 1632, “The
Deuils _foote-man_ was very nimble of his heeles, for
_no wild Irish-man could outrunne him_, sig. B 4. It
appears (see note on _A Fair Quarrel_, act iv. sc. 4)
that these Irish footmen used to carry “darts” in
their hands.

# 260:

_Dunkirks_] i. e. privateers of Dunkirk. So Shirley,—
“was ta’en at sea by _Dunkirks_,”—_Works_, vol. ii. p.
428.

# 261:

_bona-robas_] See note, vol. i. p. 258.

# 262:

_swabbers_] i. e. sweepers.

# 263:

_table-book_] i. e. memorandum-book.

# 264:

_if they be not yellow_, &c.] Lodovico means—it is
time for you to be jealous: “Since Citizens wiues
fitted their husbands with _yellow hose_, is not
within the memory of man.” Dekker’s _Owles Almanacke_,
1618, p. 7. The word “yellows” was frequently used for
jealousy.

# 265:

_The face I would not look on_] See p. 54.

# 266:

_have no ho_] See note, p. 106.

# 267:

_O sir_, &c.] This speech seems to have been intended
for verse, and is most probably corrupted.

# 268:

_eat snakes_] A supposed receipt for restoring youth.

# 269:

_He that_, &c.] “The turn of this is the same with
Iago’s definition of a deserving woman: ‘She that was
ever fair, and never proud,’ &c. The matter is
superior.” LAMB, _Spec. of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 65.

# 270:

_those_] Old ed. “these.”

# 271:

_sucket_] i. e. sweetmeat, preserve.

# 272:

_defy_] i. e. renounce.

# 273:

_quail-pipe_] Used by fowlers to allure quails.

# 274:

_the pelican does it_] “The young pelican is fabled to
suck the mother’s blood.” REED.

# 275:

_to wear blue_] “The habit of servants at the time.”
REED.

# 276:

_Lodovico, Carolo, and Astolfo_] Ought not Beraldo to
be of the party (see p. 138)? but his name is not
prefixed to any of the speeches in this scene.

# 277:

_caps_] See note, p. 58.

# 278:

_bucklers without pikes_] “The ancient _bucklers_ had
a prominent _spike_, and sometimes a _pistol_ in the
centre of them.” STEEVENS.

# 279:

_pair of organs_] i. e. an organ: compare vol. ii. p.
346, and note.

# 280:

_First Guest_] Old ed. “Lod.”

# 281:

_felt_] i. e. hat

# 282:

_block_] i. e. mould: see note, p. 107.

# 283:

_'bove_] Old ed. “loue”—and so in Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_!

# 284:

_Jets_] i. e. struts.

# 285:

_murrion_] “A head-piece, or cap of steel.” REED.

# 286:

_for when any bondman’s turn_, &c.] Here Reed has a
_learned_ note on “the ceremony of manumission,” (from
Kennet’s _Roman Antiq._), which I think it unnecessary
to reprint.

# 287:

_out_] Old ed. “on’t.”

# 288:

_this steeple_] “Of such hats P. Stubbes speaks in his
celebrated work, the _Anatomie of Abuses_, 1585.
‘Sometimes they use them sharp on the croune, pearking
up like the spere or shaft of a steeple, standing a
quarter of a yarde above the crowne of their heads,
some more, some less, as please the phantasies of
their unconstant mindes.’” REED.

# 289:

_Can._] Old ed. “Long.” Dodsley gives the exclamation
to “Car.”

# 290:

_thus_] Qy. “though?”

# 291:

_the mother_] See note, p. 41.

# 292:

_rosemary_] Used at funerals: see note, vol. i. p.
231.

# 293:

_wry mouth ... like a plaice_] “So in Nash’s _Lenten
Stuff_, 1599: ‘None won the day in this but the
herring, whom all their clamorous suffrages saluted
with Vive le Roy, God save the King, God save the
King, save only the _playse_ and the butt, that made
_wry mouths at him_, and for their mocking have _wry
mouths_ ever since.’” REED. The wry mouth of the
plaice was a favourite allusion with our old writers.

# 294:

_catso_] See note, vol. i. p. 296.

# 295:

_roaring boys_] See note on _A Fair Quarrel_, act ii.
sc. 2, in this vol.

# 296:

_bizle_] “Or, as it is sometimes spelt, _bezzle_. He
means to say, When shall I have an opportunity to
drink to excess?” REED.

# 297:

_sort_] i. e. set, company.

# 298:

_And fed upon thee_, &c.] Old ed.

“And fed upon thee: good Mat. (if you please) so base
as
Scorne to spread wing amongst these.”

Mr. Collier, in a note on the last ed. of Dodsley’s
_Old Plays_, first made the alteration which I have
adopted: as Bellafront, he observes, here uses the
contraction _Mat_, so her husband presently calls her
_Front_.

# 299:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 300:

_jail_] Old ed. “Jayle.”—Qy. “javel?” i. e. worthless
fellow.

# 301:

_vild_] i. e. vile: compare vol. ii. p. 393, note.

# 302:

_fond_] i. e. foolish.

# 303:

_blue coat_] See note, p. 146.

# 304:

_Come_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note, p. 52.

# 305:

_fly_] Old ed. “flyes.”

# 306:

_Weave thy nets_] Another imperfect couplet.

# 307:

_cony-catch_] See note, p. 16.

# 308:

_muttonmonger_] i. e. whoremonger: see note, p. 102.

# 309:

_percullis_] i. e. portcullis.

# 310:

_what do ye lack_] See note, p. 24.

# 311:

_drunk_] “i. e. _disguised_ in liquor.” COLLIER.

# 312:

_bud_] Old ed. “blood.”

# 313:

_overcharge_] Old ed. “ouerchange.”

# 314:

_Lod._ _Luke, I pray_, &c.] Lodovico repeats in scorn
the gentle language used by Candido.

# 315:

_why, when_] A frequent expression of impatience. See
note, vol. i. p. 360.

# 316:

_First P._] Old ed. “Luke”—which is the First
Prentice’s name: see p. 150.

# 317:

_Then fast, then you may choose_] Old ed. makes this
the first line of Candido’s speech; and so in
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_!

# 318:

_shop_] See note, p. 54.

# 319:

_a prize_] See note, p. 86.

# 320:

_wasters_] i. e. “cudgels.” REED.—See, at p. 125, the
passage quoted from Harington’s _Epigrams_.

# 321:

_Shall I_] “After ‘shall I’ in the old copy is
inserted ‘_Prompt?_’ meaning that Lodovico is to
prompt him.” COLLIER.

# 322:

_on_] Old ed. “vpon.”

# 323:

_wives_] A word seems to have dropt out: qy.

“_Can tame mad folks, and curst wives easily?_”

# 324:

_no longer_] Here, it should seem, Lodovico takes off
the false hair which was part of his disguise.

# 325:

_You’ve_, &c.] Must stand as a line by itself, because
it forms a couplet with the two next speeches.

# 326:

_ring him_] “To prevent swine from doing mischief, it
is usual to put rings through their nostrils.” REED.

# 327:

_These lines_, &c.] “Probably, to amend the grammar,
we ought to read,

‘These lines are ev’n the arrows Love lets fly,
The very ink dropt out of Venus’ eye.’” COLLIER.

No: I believe the author wrote the couplet as given in
the text.

# 328:

_parlous_] A corruption of _perilous_—i. e.
dangerously shrewd.

# 329:

_shackatory_] “i. e. hound. So in _The Wandering Jew_,
sig. F; ‘—for Time, though he be an old man, is an
excellent footman: no _shackatory_ comes neere him, if
hee once get the start, hee’s gone, and you gone
too.’” REED.

# 330:

_run_, &c.] See note, vol. i. p. 390.

# 331:

_ourselves_] Old ed. “your _selues_.”

# 332:

_kern_] i. e., properly, an Irish foot-soldier—a low,
savage fellow; “the very drosse and scum of the
countrey,” says B. Riche, ... “that live by robbing
and spoyling the poor countreyman:” (vide Boswell’s
note on _Macbeth_—Malone’s _Shakespeare_, vol. xi. p.
16.) So too Bryan afterwards talks of going to steal
cows again in Ireland, p. 177.

# 333:

_shag-hair’d_] “Shakespeare bestows the same epithet
on a kern of Ireland, in the Second Part of _King
Henry VI._ [act iii. sc. 1].” REED.

# 334:

_shall not thy disgrace_] Old ed. “shall thy
disgrace;” but see Infelice’s repetition of the
passage in the next page.

# 335:

_lubrican_] Compare Drayton;

“By the Mandrake’s dreadfull groanes,
By the _Lubrican’s_ sad moanes,” &c.

_Nimphidia_ (appended to _Battaile of Agincourt_,
&c.), p. 127, ed. 1627.

# 336:

_hooks_] Old ed. “Hawkes,” which in Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_ is carefully modernised to “hawks!”

# 337:

_Two-wooes_] A play on the word which expresses the
note of the owl;

“Then nightly sings the staring owl,
_To-who_,
Tu-whit, _to-who_, a merry note,” &c.
Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act v. sc.
2.

# 338:

_Irish dart_] An allusion to the darts carried by the
Irish running footmen: see note on _A Fair Quarrel_,
act iv. sc. 4.

# 339:

_thus_] Old ed. “this.”

# 340:

_bulk_] “i. e. body.” REED.

# 341:

_a country where no venom prospers_] Saint Patrick,
according to the legend, having purged Ireland from
all venomous creatures: see Shirley’s _St. Patrick for
Ireland_, act v. sc. 3—_Works_, vol. iv.

# 342:

_give_] Old eds. “to _giue_.”

# 343:

_Fond_] i. e. foolish.

# 344:

_stuft a pair of breeches_] See note, vol. ii. p. 111.

# 345:

_then_] Qy. “them?”

# 346:

_Plymouth cloak_] “‘That is,’ says Ray, in his
_Proverbs_, 1742, p. 238, ‘a _cane_, a _staff_;
whereof this is the occasion. Many a man of good
extraction, coming home from far voyages, may chance
to land here, and, being out of sorts, is unable for
the present time and place to recruit himself with
clothes. Here (if not friendly provided) they make the
next wood their draper’s shop, where a staff cut out
serves them for a covering. For we use when we walk in
_cuerpo_ to carry a staff in our hands, but none when
in a cloak.’” REED.

# 347:

_hose_] i. e. breeches.

# 348:

_split all_] See note, vol. ii. p. 518.

# 349:

_Mirror of Knighthood_] The name of a celebrated
romance, translated from the Spanish.

# 350:

_shells_] A cant term for money: see note, vol. ii. p.
543.

# 351:

_agen_] The old spelling of _again_, and necessary
here for the rhyme.—This is an imperfect couplet
(compare p. 52, and note), for the preceding speech of
Matheo is certainly prose.

# 352:

_An old_, &c.] Makes part of Lodovico’s speech in old
ed.]

# 353:

_sort_] i. e. set, company.

# 354:

_keep a door_] i. e. be a bawd.

# 355:

_Frenchman_] Old. ed. “Frenchmen.”

# 356:

_muttons_] See note, p. 102.

# 357:

_Sirrah_] See note, vol. ii. p. 491.

# 358:

_What is’t you lack_] See note, p. 24.

# 359:

_Car._] Old ed. “Lod. and _Car._”

# 360:

_She nibbled_, &c. ... _which I know_] Old ed. by
mistake assigns this to Lodovico.

# 361:

_garden-house_] See note, vol. i. p. 162.

# 362:

_bolt_] “i. e. sift.” REED.

# 363:

_warden-tree_] i. e. “pear-tree.” REED.

# 364:

_the_] Old ed. “de.”

# 365:

_agen_] See note, p. 182.

# 366:

_brave_] “i. e. fine, gaudily dressed.” REED.

# 367:

_a wild Cataian of forty such_] “i. e. forty such
shallow knights, &c. would go to the composition of a
_dexterous thief_. See a note on _The Merry Wives of
Windsor_, [‘I will not believe such a _Cataian_,’ &c.,
act ii. sc. 1.]” REED. A _Cataian_ came to signify a
sharper, because the people of _Cataia_ (China) were
famous for their thieving.

# 368:

_catso_] See note, vol. i. p. 296.

# 369:

_blue coats_] See note, p. 146.

# 370:

_Than_] Old. ed. “That.”

# 371:

_gallant_] i. e. in fine clothes.

# 372:

_bin_] i. e. been—a form which frequently occurs, and
which is here necessary for the rhyme.

# 373:

_Yes, thou hast_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note,
p. 52.

# 374:

_bard cater-tray_] Properly, _barred_, &c., a sort of
false dice, frequently mentioned by our early
writers.—“The following passage from _The Art of
Juggling, or Legerdemaine_, by S. R. 4to. 1612, sig. c
4, will sufficiently explain the terms above used:
'First you must know a langret, which is a die that
simple men have seldom heard of, but often seene to
their cost; and this is a well-favoured die, and
seemeth good and square, yet it is forged longer upon
_the cater and trea_ than any other way: and therefore
it is called a langret. Such be also call’d _bard
cater treas_, because commonly the longer end will of
his owne sway drawe downewards, and turne up to the
eie sice sincke deuce or ace. The principal use of
them is at Novum, for so longe a paire of _bard cater
treas_ be walking on the bourd, so long can ye not
cast five nor nine, unles it be by great chance, that
the roughnes of the table, or some other stoppe, force
them to stay, and run against their kinde: for without
_cater or trea_ ye know that five or nine can never
come.” REED.

# 375:

_blue coats_] See note, p. 146.

# 376:

_roaring boy_] See note on _A Fair Quarrel_, act ii.
sc. 2, in this vol.

# 377:

_footcloth_] i. e. long housing.

# 378:

_muttonmonger_] i. e. whoremonger: see note, p. 102.

# 379:

_good fellow_] A cant term for a thief.

# 380:

_hangers_] See note, vol. ii. p. 227.

# 381:

_blue coats_] See note, p. 146.

# 382:

_a cob_] “A herring is called _a cob_. See Nash’s
_Lenten Stuff_. [See Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s
_Works_, vol. i. p. 28.] There is, however, a quibble
here, for I think a _cob_ in Ireland signifies a coin
or piece of money.” REED. See also Todd’s Johnson’s
_Dict._ in v.

# 383:

_a’ t’other_] Old ed. “_a’_ the _tother_.”

# 384:

_footcloth nags_] i. e. nags with long housings.

# 385:

_must I choke_] He means, perhaps,—why do you not give
me drink?

# 386:

_bombasted_] “i. e. stuffed out.” REED.

# 387:

_marks_] A mark was 13_s._ 4_d._

# 388:

_clapdish_] See note, vol. ii. p. 169.

# 389:

_blue coats_] See note, p. 146.

# 390:

_purchase_] “Was anciently a cant word for stolen
goods.” REED.

# 391:

_this_] i. e., I suppose, his sword.

# 392:

_old Cole_] Qy. Is this an allusion to the well-known
song of _Old King Cole_? but I recollect no mention of
it so early as Middleton’s time.

# 393:

_touch_] See note, vol. i. p. 344.

# 394:
——_concubine
To an English king_] “_Arlotta_ (from whence the word
_harlot_ is fancifully derived) was not the
concubine of an English monarch, but mistress to
Robert, one of the dukes of Normandy, and father to
William the Conqueror.” STEEVENS.

# 395:

_than_] Is frequently used for _then_ by our old
poets, to suit the rhyme.

# 396:

_blue coat_] See note, p. 146.

# 397:

_Sforza_] “A name taken by Lodovico, perhaps, for the
occasion,” says the last editor of Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_; but it is evident that he was called (like the
hero of Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_) Lodovico Sforza.

# 398:

_pursenet_] “A net, of which the mouth is drawn
together by a string.” REED.

# 399:

_agen_] See note, p. 182.

# 400:

_muster-book_] Old ed. “master-booke.”]

# 401:

_consort_] i. e. band of musicians.

# 402:

_pair of virginals_, &c.] See note, p. 112. _A pair of
virginals_ (like _a pair of organs_, see note, p. 147)
meant a single instrument.

# 403:

_drink healths, tobacco_, &c.] “To _drink_ tobacco was
a common phrase for smoking it.” REED.

# 404:

_galley-foist_] See note, vol. ii. p. 531.

# 405:

_stewed prunes_] A dish very common in brothels: see
Steevens’s elaborate note on _First Part of Henry
IV._, act iii. sc. 3—Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by
Boswell), vol. xvi. p. 345.

# 406:

_Here’s ordnance able to sack a city_] “So Falstaff,
on the same occasion, in the _First Part of Henry
IV._, says, ‘there’s that will _sack a city_.’”
STEEVENS.

# 407:

_Peter-sameene_] One of the several disguises under
which the word _Pedro-Ximenes_ is found in our early
writers. “The Pedro-Ximenes ... receives its name from
a grape which is said to have been imported from the
banks of the Rhine by an individual called _Pedro
Simon_ (corrupted to Ximen, or Ximenes), and is one of
the richest and most delicate of the Malaga wines,
resembling very much the malmsey of Paxarete.”
Henderson’s _Hist. of Anc. and Mod. Wines_, p. 193.

# 408:

_Charnico_] Or _Charneco_.—“Shakspeare and other
dramatic writers mention a wine called _Charneco_....
According to Mr. Steevens, the appellation is derived
from a village near Lisbon. There are, in fact, two
villages in that neighbourhood, which take the name of
_Charneca_; the one situated about a league and a half
above the town of Lisbon, the other near the coast,
between Collares and Carcavellos. We shall, therefore,
probably not err much, if we refer the wine in
question to the last-mentioned territory.” _Ibid._ p.
306.

# 409:

_Leatica_] Old ed. “Ziattica”—a misprint for
_Leatica_, a not uncommon form (see _Philocothonista_,
1635, p. 48) of the word “_Aleatico_, or red
muscadine, which is produced in the highest perfection
at Montepulciano, between Sienna and the Papal state;
at Monte Catini, &c. ... and of which the name in some
measure expresses the rich quality (it is obviously
derived from ἡλιαζω, _soli expono_); has a brilliant
purple colour, and a luscious aromatic flavour,” &c.
_Ibid._ p. 237.

# 410:

_towards_] i. e. in a state of preparation, at hand.

# 411:

_saker_, _basilisk_] Small pieces of ordnance.

# 412:

_Ast., Car., &c._] One of the many speeches to which
in the old ed. is the prefix “_Omnes_.”

# 413:

_Cap_] i. e. flat-cap: see note, p. 58.

# 414:

_Kneels_] “This [common] custom of 'kneeling and
drinking of healths’ kindled the wrath of various
puritanical writers. Stubbes, in his _Anatomy of
Abuses_, tells a story of a man in Almaine, who,
drinking a health to his Creator on his knees, was
fixed for ever like a statue, which horses could not
draw nor fire burn. R. Junius, in his _Drunkard’s
Character_, 1638, speaks of ‘a Lincolnshire man,
well known, that in his cups drank a health to the
devil, who had no sooner drank it off, but he fell
down dead.’ ‘To mend the matter (he says elsewhere),
lest Satan should want his due reverence, these
wine-worshippers will be at it on their knees,
especially if they drink a great man’s health,’ p.
313.” REED.

# 415:

_Thus ... thus_] How they indicated the price I know
not.

# 416:

_Billmen_] i. e. watchmen, who carried _bills_ (a sort
of pikes with hooked points), which were anciently the
weapons of the English foot-soldiers.

# 417:

_Is’t Shrove Tuesday, that these ghosts walk_] “From
this passage, I apprehend it was formerly a custom for
the peace-officers to make search after women of ill
fame on that day, and to confine them during the
season of Lent. So Sensuality says, in _Microcosmus_,
‘But now welcome a cart, or a _Shrove Tuesday’s_
tragedy.’” REED. “The progress of the constables on
Shrove Tuesday was for the purpose of checking
the outrages of the apprentices. See Taylor’s
_Jack-a-Lent_, 115.” O. GILCHRIST. Demolishing
houses of bad fame was one of the amusements of the
apprentices on Shrove Tuesday (see my note on
Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 225); and their riots
no doubt required the check of the constable and his
attendants: but it appears also, that on the same day
an official search was made for brothel-keepers, who
were either forthwith carted, or confined during Lent:
vide Nares’s _Gloss._ in v. _Shroving_.

# 418:

_Me, sir_] “This ‘Me, sir?’ and the Billmen’s echo of
it in the old copy are printed ‘Me, Sirrr?’ to
indicate, perhaps, the manner in which Bots spoke it.”
COLLIER.

# 419:

_sits in a blue gown_] “It appears from a passage in
_Promos and Cassandra_ [and from a dozen other
passages in various writers], that a _blue gown_ was
the habit in which a strumpet did penance. So too in
_The Northern Lass_, 1633, ‘All the good you intended
me was a lockram coif, a _blue gown_, a wheel,’ &c.
The _wheel_, as well as the _blue gown_, are mentioned
in subsequent scenes of this comedy.” STEEVENS.

# 420:

_any woman_, &c.] i. e. that has been carted, and
pelted with rotten eggs.

# 421:

_beats chalk, or grinds in the mill_] “To beat chalk,
grind in mills, raise sand and gravel, and make lime,
were among the employments assigned for vagrants who
were committed to Bridewell. See _Orders appointed to
be executed in the Cittie of London, for setting roges
and idle persons to worke, and for releefe of the
poore_. Printed by Hugh Singleton.” REED.

# 422:

_Your Bridewell_, &c.] “We have here a curious
specimen of the license which ancient writers
used to allow themselves of introducing facts and
circumstances peculiar to one country into another.
Every thing here said of Bridewell is applicable to
the house of Correction which goes by that name in
London. Changing the names of the duke and his son to
those of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, all
the events mentioned will be found to have happened in
the English Bridewell. The situation of the place is
also the same. In the time of Henry the Eighth princes
were lodged there; part of it being built in the year
1522, for the reception of Charles the Fifth, whose
nobles resided in it. In 1528, Cardinal Campeius had
his first audience there; and after Henry’s death,
Edward the Sixth, in the seventh year of his reign,
1552, gave to the citizens of London this his palace
for the purposes above mentioned. To complete the
parallel, it was endowed with land, late belonging to
the Savoy, to the amount of 700 marks a-year, with all
the bedding and furniture of that hospital. See
Stowe’s _Survey_, Strype’s edit. 1721, vol. i. p. 264.
There is also the like anachronism in the First Part
of this play, concerning Bethlem Hospital.” REED.

# 423:

_marks_] See note, p. 198.

# 424:

_war_] Old ed. “warres.”

# 425:

_agen_] See note, p. 182.

# 426:

_on_] Old ed. “or.”

# 427:

_and_] Old ed. “before.”

# 428:

_he_] Old ed. “she.”

# 429:

_anatomies_] i. e. skeletons:

“And rouse from sleep that fell _anatomy_.”
Shakespeare’s _King John_, act iii. sc. 4.

# 430:

_Sforza_] See note, p. 206.

# 431:

_atomies_] i. e. atoms.

# 432:

_mutton pasty_] See note, p. 102.

# 433:

_A barber’s cittern_] See note, vol. i. p. 174.

# 434:

_prize be play’d_] See note, p. 86.

# 435:

_a beetle_] “A mallet.” REED. See speech of First
Master, p. 233.

# 436:

_billmen_] See note, p. 217.

# 437:

_a squire of the body_] “A squire of the body, says
Mr. Steevens (note on the _First Part of Henry IV._)—
[Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xvi. p.
191]—signified, originally, the attendant on a knight,
the person who bore his head-piece, spear, and shield.
It afterwards became a cant term for a _pimp_, and is
so used here.” REED. So also B. Jonson uses the single
word _squire_ for pimp or procurer: (see Gifford’s
note on _Every Man in his Humour_—_Works_, vol. i. p.
132.) See also our author’s _Fair Quarrel_, act iv.
sc. 4.

# 438:

_apple-squire_] In a note on Hall’s _Satires_, 1824,
p. 8, the editor remarks: “This cant phrase has been
erroneously explained as meaning a pander or pimp. The
fact is, that it meant what is in modern slang called
a _flash-man_: a _squire of the body_ had the same
meaning.” No doubt one of its meanings was a kept
gallant; but it generally signifies, as in our text, a
pimp. Greene, enumerating the professors of the
“sacking law,” mentions “_The Bawd_; if a man, an
_Apple squire_.” _Notable Discouery of Coosenage_,
1592, sig. c 2. See also the fourth line of the song
in our author’s _Fair Quarrel_, act iv. sc. 4.

# 439:

_brave_] See note, p. 190.

# 440:

_a wheel ... blue gown_] The use of both is presently
mentioned in the text; and see note, p. 220.

# 441:

_rosemary_] See note, p. 151.

# 442:

_marry muff_] See note, p. 36.

# 443:

_spittle_] See note, vol. ii. p. 465.

# 444:

_mought_] i. e. might.

# 445:

_chalk_, &c.] See note, p. 221.

# 446:

_guarded_] A play on the word—trimmed, faced.

# 447:

_God_] “In the old copy there is a blank left for this
word, to avoid the _prophanationem nominis Dei_, as T.
Bastard terms it in his _Epigrams_.... This vice, as
is well known, was, not many years afterwards,
reformed in a great degree, as far as the theatre was
concerned. See the statute 3. James I. chap. xxi.”
COLLIER.

# 448:

_loose-bodied gowns_] The common dress of courtesans:
see note, vol. i. p. 431.

# 449:

_chare_] “i. e. task-work.” REED.

# 450:

_flat-caps_] See note, p. 58.

# 451:

_a beadle beating a basin_] The First Master presently
tells the Duke that the basin “is an emblem of their
revelling.” Here Reed cites a parallel passage from B.
Jonson’s _New Inn_, act iv. sc. 3, and a remark of
Whalley, that it alludes “to the custom of old, when
bawds and other infamous persons were carted. A mob of
people used to precede them _beating basins_ and other
utensils of the same kind, to make the noise and
tumult the bigger,” &c. &c.

# 452:

_guarded_] See note, p. 236.

# 453:

_ancient_] i. e. “an ensign.” REED. “This point will
be better understood from the following [passage of
_The Fleire_, by Sharpham, sig. F 2, ed. 1615.]

‘FLEIRE. What, Signior! in loue with my Ladie’s
_Ancient_.
SPARKE. Why her Ancient?
FLEIRE. Because she carries her colours for her, but
’tis
in a boxe.’” COLLIER. I doubt if there be any such
point
in our text.

# 454:

_aqua vitæ_] “Formerly the general name for spirits.”
REED.

# 455:

_defy_] i. e. reject, disclaim.

# 456:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 457:

_brave_] See note, p. 190.

# 458:

_marry muff_] See note, p. 36.

# 459:

_placket_] See vol. ii. p. 497. The assertion of
Nares, there mentioned, is disproved by the present
passage.

# 460:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 461:

_let_] Old ed. “lets.”

# 462:

_Yet, good_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note, p.
52. In the passage which immediately precedes it,
Orlando seems to be seized with a fit of rhyming.

# 463:

_Then hear, Matheo: all_, &c.] Qy. “_Then_ here,
_Matheo, all_,” &c.

# 464:

_have_] Old ed. “hath.”

# 465:

_recovered_] From the playhouse probably, as Steevens conjectures.

# 466:

_a banquet towards_] i. e. a banquet at hand, ready.
_Banquet_ means here, as in many (though not all)
passages of our early writers, what we now call a
dessert. Our ancestors usually quitted the eating-room
as soon as they had dined, and removed to another
apartment, where the _banquet_ was set out.

# 467:

_duke’s_] MS. “king’s.”

# 468:

_know_] MS. “knew.”

# 469:

_suckets_] i. e. sweetmeats.

# 470:

_termers_] i. e. persons resorting to the capital
during term-time: compare vol. ii. pp. 107, 433.

# 471:

_Amsterdam_] See note, vol. i. p. 205.

# 472:

_she that sunk_, &c.] i. e. Queen Elinor, wife to King
Edward the First: see Peele’s drama entitled _Edward
I._, and the Ballad prefixed to it, in my sec. ed. of
his _Works_, vol. i. p. 69. 1829.

# 473:

_charms_] Written in MS. “_charmes_”—is used as a
dissyllable in the next scene,

“Knit with these _charms_ and retentive knots.”

But perhaps I ought to have reduced the present
hobbling speech to prose.

# 474:

_a country house_, &c.] “The country house here
alluded to,” says Malone, “was at Brentford; and in
the plays written in 1607, and for some years
afterwards, there are frequent allusions to the
practice of carrying women of the town thither.” _Life
of Shakespeare_, p. 428 (_Sh. by Boswell_, vol. ii.)

# 475:

_conclusions_] i. e. experiments.

# 476:

_A banquet_] See note, p. 252.

# 477:

_have_] MS. “hath.”

# 478:

_The round_] See note, vol. ii. p. 190.

# 479:

_The abode of Hecate. Enter Hecate_] MS. has, “_Enter
Heccat; and other Witches_ (_with Properties, and
Habitts fitting_).“—I had originally prefixed to this
scene, ”_A Cave: Hecate discovered in front of the
stage: Stadlin, Hoppo, other witches, and Firestone,
in an inner cave, where a caldron is boiling_:” but
Hecate does not _see_ the caldron; and as we shall
presently find that Almachildes (vide p. 268) is on
the point of falling into it, _before_ he meets with
Hecate, it could not have been placed in an _inner_
cave.

# 480:

_Hoppo and Stadlin_] See quotation from R. Scot, note,
p. 265.

# 481:

_Hellwain_] MS. “Hellwin:” see note, p. 264.

# 482:

_Puckle_] MS. “Prickle.”

# 483:

_The nips of fairies_, &c.] This passage is explained
by the following lines of Browne:

“where oft the Fairy-Queene
At twy-light sate, and did command her Elues
To pinch those Maids that had not swept their shelues;
And further if by Maidens ouersight
Within doores water were not brought at night,
Or if they spread no Table, set no Bread,
_They should haue nips_ from toe vnto the head.”
_Britannia’s Pastorals_, b. i. song ii. p. 41, ed.
1625.

# 484:

_Why, when_] See note, p. 164.

# 485:

_There, take this unbaptised brat_, &c.] Here, and in
the next three speeches of Hecate, Middleton follows
Reginald Scot, using sometimes the very words of that
curious writer. In the _Discouerie of Witchcraft_,
Scot gives from “John Bapt. Neap.” i. e. Porta, the
following receipts for the miraculous transportation
of witches: “℞. _The fat of yoong children, and seeth
it with water in a brasen vessell_, reseruing the
thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the
bottome, which they laie vp and keepe, vntill
occasion serueth to vse it. _They put herevnto
Eleoselinum, Aconitum, frondes populeas, and soote._”
“℞. _Sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the bloud of
a flitter-mouse, solanum somniferum et oleum_. They
stampe all these togither, and then they rubbe all
parts of their bodies exceedinglie, till they looke
red and be verie hot, so as the pores may be opened
and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine
herewithall either fat or oile in steed thereof, that
the force of the ointment maie the rather pearse
inwardly, and so be more effectual. By this means
(saith he) _in a moone light night they seeme to be
carried in the aire, to feasting, singing, dansing,
kissing, culling, and other acts of venerie, with such
youthes as they loue and desire most_,” &c. B. x. c.
viii. p. 184, ed. 1584.—See the original of this in
Porta’s _Magiæ Naturalis, sive De Miraculis Rerum
Naturalium Libri iiii._, 1561, 12mo. p. 180. Porta
omitted the passage in (at least some) later and
enlarged editions of his work.

# 486:

_leek_] i. e. like—for the sake of the rhyme.

# 487:

_coll_] i. e. embrace, or clasp round the neck.

# 488:

_Whelplie’s_] What place is meant by this word I know
not.

# 489:

_his throat_] i. e. the dead child’s.

# 490:

_Pentaphyllon_] MS. “Dentaphillon.”

# 491:

_flitter-mouse_] Or _flicker_-mouse—i. e. bat.

# 492:

_churnings_] MS. “charmings.”

# 493:

_meet_] i. e. even.

# 494:

_dew-skirted_] MS. “dew’d-skirted.”

# 495:

_swathy feastings_] i. e. (I suppose) feastings among
the _swaths_—the mown rows of grass.

# 496:

_costermonger’s_] i. e. apple-seller’s.

# 497:

_Sylvans_] MS. “Silence.”—Here again Middleton borrows
from Reginald Scot: “And they haue so fraied vs with
bull beggers, spirits, witches, _vrchens_, _elues_,
_hags_, fairies, _satyrs_, _pans_, _faunes_, _sylens_
[sylvans], _kit with the cansticke_, _tritons_,
_centaurs_, _dwarfes_, giants, _imps_, calcars,
coniurors, nymphes, changlings, Incubus, Robin
good-fellowe, _the spoorne_, _the mare_, _the man in
the oke_, _the hell waine_, _the fierdrake_, _the
puckle_, Tom thombe, hob gobblin, Tom tumbler,
boneles, and such other bugs, that we are afraid of
our owne shadowes.” _Discouerie of Witchcraft_, b.
vii. c. xv. p. 153, ed. 1584.—Sir W. Scott, having
given the above quotation from the work of his
namesake, observes: “It would require a better
demonologist than I am to explain the various obsolete
superstitions which Reginald Scot has introduced, as
articles of the old English faith, into the preceding
passage. I might indeed say, the Phuca is a Celtic
superstition, from which the word Pook, or Puckle,
was doubtless derived; and I might conjecture,
that the man-in-the-oak was the same with the
Erl-König of the Germans; and that the hellwain were a
kind of wandering spirits, the descendants of
a champion named Hellequin, who are introduced
into the romance of Richard sans Peur. But most
antiquarians will be at fault concerning the spoorn,
Kitt-with-the-candlestick, Boneless, and some others.”
_Letters on Demonology, &c._, p. 174, sec. ed.—
Whatever “Hellwain” may be properly, Middleton meant
to express by the term some individual spirit: see p.
259, and the 3d scene of act iii.—The words with which
Hecate concludes this speech, “A ab hur hus!” are also
borrowed from R. Scot’s work, b. xii. c. xiv. p. 244,
where they are mentioned as a charm against the
toothache.

# 498:

_as_] MS. “and.”

# 499:

_Stadlin’s within_, &c.] From R. Scot: “It is
constantlie affirmed in M. Mal. that Stafus vsed
alwaies to hide himselfe in a monshoall [mouse-hole],
and had a disciple called Hoppo, who made Stadlin a
maister witch, and could all when they list inuisiblie
transferre the third part of their neighbours doong,
hay, corne, &c. into their owne ground, make haile,
tempests, and flouds, with thunder and lightning; and
kill children, cattell, &c.: reueale things hidden,
and many other tricks, when and where they list.”
_Discouerie of Witchcraft_, b. xii. c. v. p. 222, ed.
1584.—See Sprenger’s _Malleus Maleficarum_, Pars Sec.
quæst. i. cap. xv. p. 267, ed. 1576, where the name
_Stadio_, not _Stadlin_, is found; but the latter
occurs at p. 210.

# 500:

_tear_] MS. “teares”—and in the next line “Flyes,” and
“takes.”

# 501:

_Anno Domini_] i. e. the date of the house, frequently
affixed to old buildings.

# 502:

_reeks_] i. e. ricks.

# 503:

_charms_] See note, p. 255.

# 504:

_Chirocineta_, &c.] From R. Scot: “Pythagoras and
Democritus giue vs the names of a great manie magicall
hearbs and stones, whereof now both the vertue and the
things themselues also are vnknowne: as _Marmaritin_,
whereby spirits might be raised: _Archimedon_,
which would make one bewraie in his sleepe all the
secrets in his heart: _Adincantida_, _Calicia_,
Meuais, _Chirocineta_, &c.: which had all their
seuerall vertues, or rather poisons.” _Discouerie of
Witchcraft_, b. vi. c. iii. p. 117, ed. 1584.

# 505:

_sew and sock_] MS. “soawes _and_ socks.”

# 506:

_patient miracle_] i. e. Job.

# 507:

_agen_] See note p. 182.

# 508:

_I know he loves me not_] Steevens, enumerating the
parallel passages of _Macbeth_ and _The Witch_,
compares the present observation of Hecate with what
the same personage says in Shakespeare’s play;

“And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do,
_Loves for his own ends, not for you_.” Act iii. sc.
5.

# 509:

_bravest_] i. e. fineliest dressed.

# 510:

_I pray, be covered_] I may just observe, that, in the
language of the time, these words meant, properly,—put
on your hat.

# 511:

_tremble_] MS. “trembles.”

# 512:

_a toad in marchpane_] Marchpane was a composition of
almonds and sugar, &c. pounded and baked together. It
was a constant article at _banquets_ [i. e. desserts],
and was wrought into various figures. Taylor, the
water-poet, mentions

“Conseru’s and _Marchpanes_, made in sundry shapes,
As Castles, Towres, Horses, Beares and Apes.”
_The Siege of Jerusalem_, p. 15—_Workes_, 1630.

# 513:

_beray’d_] i. e. befouled.

# 514:

_sucket_] i. e. sweetmeat.

# 515:

_cullis_] i. e. a strong broth, a savoury jelly: among
its ingredients the old receipt-books mention fine
gold and orient pearl.

# 516:

_nobles_] Gold coins worth 6_s._ 8_d._ each.

# 517:

_panado_] “A kind of caudle, made of water, grated
bread, currans, mace, cinnamon, sack, or white wine
and sugar, with yolks of eggs boiled.” R. Holme’s _Ac.
of Armory_, b. iii. c. iii. p. 84.

# 518:

_Some_, &c.] In this speech I have printed several
lines as prose, which might, perhaps, be tortured into
verse.

# 519:

_chewets_] “_Chewit_, or small pie, minced or
otherwise.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, b. iii. c.
iii. p. 82.

# 520:

_gamester_] i. e. debauched fellow.

# 521:

_toy_] i. e. trifle.

# 522:

_have_] MS. “has.”

# 523:

_spoil_] MS. “spoiles.”

# 524:

_watermen_] Compare p. 273, line 6.

# 525:

_toys_] i. e. trifles.

# 526:

_heal_] i. e. health—_Scotch_—at Ravenna!

# 527:

_agen_] See note, p. 182.

# 528:

_toy_] i. e. whim, fancy.

# 529:

_boughts_] i. e. knots, twists.

# 530:

_Here were a sweet_, &c.] See note, p. 272.

# 531:

_all split_] See note, vol. ii. p. 518.

# 532:

_were_] MS. “was.”

# 533:

_clipp’d_] Or _cleped_—i. e. called.

# 534:

_beholding_] For _beholden_—a common form in our old
writers.

# 535:

_safeguard_] See note, vol. ii. p. 459.

# 536:

_Here’s no sweet charge_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.

# 537:

_condition_] i.e. quality, disposition.

# 538:

_beholding_] See note, p. 286.

# 539:

_strangeness_] i. e. shyness, reserve.

# 540:

_cast_] i. e. contrived.

# 541:

_are_] MS. “is.”

# 542:

_depend_] MS. “depends.”

# 543:

_sweets_] MS. “pretious _sweetes_.”

# 544:

_flow_] MS. “flowes.”

# 545:

_Heard you the owl yet_, &c.
. . . . . . . .
_’Tis high time for us then_]

So in Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_:

“3. _Witch._ Harper cries:—’Tis time, ’tis time.”
Act iv. sc. 1.

# 546:

_noise_] i. e. company: see note, vol. ii. p. 498.

# 547:

_Song above._]

_Come away, come away_, &c.
. . . . . . . . .
_Or cannon’s throat our height can reach_]

In act iii. sc. 5 of Davenant’s alteration of
_Macbeth_, this passage is inserted, with some
variations. It is so highly fanciful, and comes in so
happily where Davenant has placed it (viz. immediately
after these lines of the original _Macbeth_—

“SONG [_within_]. _Come away, come away_, &c.
HECATE. Hark, I am call’d; my little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.”)

that one is almost tempted to believe it was written
by Shakespeare, and had been omitted in the printed
copies of his play. Till the MS. of _The Witch_ was
discovered, towards the end of the last century, the
passage in question was of course supposed to be the
composition of Davenant.

# 548:

_coll_] i. e. embrace.

# 549:

_Over steep_, &c.] Davenant gives,

“_Over_ steeples, _towers, and turrets_,”

which I suspect is the true reading: compare what
Hecate says at p. 260,

“In moonlight nights, on _steeple-tops_,” &c.

# 550:

_aqua-vitæ shop_] See note, p. 239.

# 551:

_A fair Warning_, &c.] So there is an old play
entitled _A Warning for faire Women_, 1599, 4to, the
author unknown.

# 552:

_Dearer_] i. e. more afflictive.

# 553:

_men_] MS. “man.”

# 554:

_disease_] i. e. disturb.

# 555:

_Enter Francisca above_] MS. has, “_Enter Francisca_
in her Chamber;” but it is evident that she entered on
what was called the upper stage: see note, vol. ii. p.
125.

# 556:

_slights_] i. e. artifices.

# 557:

_resolv’d_] i. e. satisfied, convinced.

# 558:

_He cries it hither: I must disease you straight,
sir.
For the maid-servants and the girls o’ th’ house,
I spic’d them lately with a drowsy posset_]

_Cries_ i. e. snores—_disease_, i. e. disturb, waken.
It was formerly a general custom to eat possets just
before bed-time.—Steevens compares this passage with
the following one of Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_, act ii.
sc. 2;

“the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with _snores_: I have _drugg’d
their possets_,” &c.

and observes, that Macbeth’s expression, act ii. sc.
1, “There’s no such thing,” is likewise used by
Francisca (see p. 317), when she undeceives her
brother.

# 559:

_Flo._] MS. “Fra.”

# 560:

_ruinous_] MS. “ruynes.”

# 561:

_knowledge_] Altered by Reed to “conscience.”

# 562:

_Antonio_] MS. has “Sebastian,” and prefixes “Seb.” to
the first and third speeches in this scene.

# 563:

_untruss’d_] i. e. the points or tagged laces by which
the hose or breeches were attached to the doublet,
being yet untied.

# 564:

_If she be_, &c.] The MS. makes these two lines a part
of Florida’s speech.

# 565:

_beholding_] See note, p. 286.

# 566:

_Cum. volui_, &c.] Ovid, _Met._ vii. 199, where the
first line is

“Quorum ope, _cum volui, ripis mirantibus amnes_:”

but I find it quoted, as in our text, by Corn.
Agrippa, _Occult. Philos._ lib. i. cap. lxxii. p. 113.
_Opp._ t. i. ed. Lugd.; by R. Scot, _Discouerie of
Witchcraft_, l. xii. c. vii. p. 225, ed. 1584; and by
Bodinus, _De Magorum Dæmonomania_, lib. ii. cap. ii.
p. 130, ed. 1590. From the last-mentioned work,
indeed, Middleton seems to have transcribed the
passage, since he omits, as Bodinus does, a line after
“_Vipereas rumpo_,” &c.

# 567:

_when_] See note, p. 164

# 568:

_acopus_] I am uncertain about the meaning of this
word. Pliny mentions an herb, and also a stone, called
_acopos_: see _Hist. Nat._ lib. xxvii. cap. iv. t. ii.
p. 423, and lib. xxxvii. cap. x. t. ii. p. 787, ed.
Hard. 1723.

# 569:
_Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may_]

Preceded in MS. by the words “_A charme Song about a
Vessell_,”—is the “Song” of the witches “about the
caldron,” _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. 1. In the folios of
Shakespeare we find only “_Musicke and a Song. Blacke
Spirits, &c._;” in later editions the rest has been
supplied from Davenant’s alteration of _Macbeth_, (see
note, p. 303) where what follows in our text is
inserted, with some variations.

# 570:

_again_] Davenant gives “a grain”—a specious reading,
but not, I believe, the true one.

# 571:

_let the air_, &c.] So the 1st Witch says in
Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_;

“_I’ll charm the air to give a sound_,
While you perform your antic round:
That this great king may kindly say,
Our duties did his welcome pay.
_Musick._ _The Witches dance_, and vanish.”
Act iv. sc. 1.

In the passage just quoted, the modern editions
wrongly retain _antique_, the old spelling of _antic_.

“Though,” says Lamb, “some resemblance may be traced
between the Charms in Macbeth and the Incantations in
this Play, which is supposed to have preceded it, this
coincidence will not detract much from the originality
of Shakspeare. His Witches are distinguished from the
Witches of Middleton by essential differences. These
are creatures to whom man or woman plotting some dire
mischief might resort for occasional consultation.
Those originate deeds of blood and begin bad impulses
to men. From the moment that their eyes first meet
with Macbeth’s, he is spell-bound. That meeting sways
his destiny. He can never break the fascination. These
Witches can hurt the body; those have power over the
soul. Hecate in Middleton has a son, a low buffoon:
the hags of Shakspeare have neither child of their
own, nor seem to be descended from any parent. They
are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they
are sprung, nor whether they have beginning or ending.
As they are without human passions, so they seem to be
without human relations. They come with thunder and
lightning, and vanish to airy music. This is all we
know of them. Except Hecate, they have no names; which
heightens their mysteriousness. The names and some of
the properties which Middleton has given to his Hags
excite smiles. The Weird Sisters are serious things.
Their presence cannot coexist with mirth. But, in a
lesser degree, the Witches of Middleton are fine
creations. Their power too is, in some measure, over
the mind. They raise jars, jealousies, strifes, _like
a thick scurf o’er life_.” _Spec. of Engl. Dram.
Poets_, p. 174.

# 572:

_Servants_] Here the MS. marks also the entrance of
“_Francisca_” and “_Aberzanes_;” but they have no
speeches during the present scene.

# 573:

_How_] Qy. “Who?”

# 574:

_passion_] i. e. violent grief.

# 575:

_Ever Almachildes now_] Something seems to be omitted
after these words.

# 576:

_Alexander Gough_] An actor, who, during the suppression of the
theatres, “helpt Mr. Mosely the bookseller to this and several other
dramatic Manuscripts.” Langbaine’s _Acc. of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p.
298.

# 577:

_merry_] Was altered by Weber to “gay,” for the sake of a better
rhyme.

# 578:

_A Room in Brandino’s House_] Weber marked this scene
“_The Country. An Inner Court of Brandino’s House_:”
and he did so, I presume, because Philippa and
Violetta presently “_appear at a window_.” But the
scene evidently takes place within the house. So in _A
Trick to catch the Old One_, vol. ii. p. 82, Joyce
“_appears above_,” and, like Philippa, throws down a
letter to Witgood, who is standing in a room of
Hoard’s house. See also p. 314 of this vol. On such
occasions the upper stage was used: vide note, vol.
ii. p. 125.

# 579:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 580:

_What posy’s_, &c.] Our ancestors were so fond
of _posies_, that they had them inscribed on
various parts of the house—nay, even on their
cheese-trenchers: see vol. i. p. 31, and the
present vol. p. 98.

# 581:

_Bring_] Old ed. “Brings.”

# 582:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 583:

_go_] Old ed. “goes.”

# 584:

_beholding_] See note, p. 286.

# 585:

_Astilio_] Qy. “Attilio?” one of the characters in the
play.

# 586:

_a’ life_] i. e. as my life, exceedingly.

# 587:

_proper_] i. e. handsome.

# 588:

_in my books_] i. e. in my favour: see more than
enough concerning this expression, in the notes on
Shakespeare’s _Much ado about Nothing_, act i. sc. 1,
and Nares’s _Gloss_.

# 589:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 590:

_exit_] Here Weber put a stage-direction, “_Drops a
letter, and exit_.” Wonderful that he should have read
the play, without perceiving that the letter was
thrown down by Philippa! The other editors adopted the
safer plan of adding nothing to the stage-directions
of the 4to.

# 591:

_and_] i. e. if.

# 592:

_has had opportunity_] In Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, and
Weber’s _B. and F._, we find (among many similar
improvements of the metre), “he _has had_ an
_opportunity_.”

# 593:

_Here’s no villany_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.

# 594:

_improv’d_] Qy. “approv’d?”

# 595:

_roarer_] See note on _A Fair Quarrel_, act ii. sc. 2.
in this vol.

# 596:

_and_] i.e. if.

# 597:

_have_] Old ed. “has.”

# 598:

_cannot tell_] i. e. know not what to say, or think,
of it: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol.
i. p. 125.

# 599:

_condition_] See note, p. 292.

# 600:

_hose_] i. e. breeches.

# 601:

_come_] Old ed. “comes.”

# 602:

_gom_] i. e. man, fellow: _Anglo-Sax._ The word
occurs frequently in our earliest poetry.

# 603: